Report No. PID9254
Project Name             Malawi-Lake Malawi Ecosystem (@)
Management Project
Region                   Africa Regional Office
Sector                   Natural Resources Management
Project ID               MWPE66196
Supplemental Project     MWGE57886
Implementing Agency
Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environmental Affairs and targeted
District Assemblies and
Non-Governmental Organizations in the
Lake Malawi
Basin
Address: Private Bag 350, Capital City,
Lilongwe, Malawi
Contact Person: Alex Bulirani
Tel: 265 263-432
Fax: 265 263-151
Email: Abulirani@Globemw.Net
University of Malawi and core natural
resource departments in the Ministry
of Water Development, Agriculture and
Irrigation, and Tourism and
Wildlife, with the coordination of the
Department of Local Government
Administration in the Ministry of Local Government
Environment Category     B
Date PID Prepared        May 14, 2002
Auth Appr/Negs Date      May 8, 2002
Bank Approval Date       March 3, 2003
1. Country and Sector Background
1.1 Local, national and global significance of Lake Malawi's biological
resources:Malawi's urban and rural populations, and the national economy,
depend heavily on the country's agricultural, forest, water and lake
resources for their nutritional and economic well-being. To Malawi, the
Lake represents a vital source of fresh water, food and livelihoods. It is
also a tourist destination, it forms the basis of a local transport
network, and through its outflow into the Shire River it provides the
country with its main source of hydroelectric power. The Lake and its
tributaries provide an estimated 70% of the animal protein consumed in the
country, thereby constituting a critical, life-sustaining input to the
chronically food deficit and malnourished population. The commercial
fisheries from Lake Malawi are currently estimated to contribute 1-2% to
GDP and provide employment to about 40,000 people directly, and another
250,000 people in related employment activities such as fish processing



and marketing. But its importance to the nation is far greater than these
statistics would imply due to both the national nutritional contribution
and the catalytic effect that fishing revenues have on a diversity of
other economic activities at major landing sites. Nor is the latent
economic value of the Lake reflected in the current forms and intensity of
exploitation. Important untapped fisheries resources as well as
agricultural irrigation potential await sustainable development. The Lake
possesses a number of other features that make it unique among the lakes
of the world. As one of the East African Rift Valley Lakes, it is the
ninth largest in the world and the third largest in Africa. The most well
known feature is the species-rich assemblage of fishes whose diversity
surpasses that of any other freshwater fish community in the world. Of
great interest to the scientific community, this diversity, along with the
fascinating breeding and feeding behavior exhibited by many of the fish,
has been studied under the first GEF/SADC Project. Particularly
noteworthy are the 800+ species belonging to the cichlid family, of which
all but five are endemic to the Lake. Because this ichthyofauna is endemic
to the Lake and because such rich speciaction among haplochromines has
only occurred on such a grand scale in only two other lakes in the world,
both in Africa (Victoria and Tanganyika), the global community has only
one chance at effective management of this unique resource. But to the
population living in the Lake catchment, it is fish's utility as a source
of high quality food, rural income and employment what makes the Lake's
exceptional biodiversity so valuable. Malawi is a major beneficiary, as
the majority of the Lake's surface area is within Malawi, along with about
80% of the total lakeshore population. Over 95% of the Lake's fish catch
in Malawi is caught by small-scale and artisanal methods within two
kilometers of the shoreline. The shallow water-based artisanal fishery is
however in a downward spiral of deterioration as a result of localized
over-fishing and increased land degradation in the catchment, and
sedimentation in sensitive habitats within the Lake. There has been a
decline in fish stocks of some key species in the biodiversity-rich
nearshore areas of the Lake, which are habitat for the most diverse and
endemic species of cichlids. Due to their sedentary nature and low
reproductive rates, the speciose cichlids are vulnerable to extinction
from excessive fishing pressure, changes in water quality and localized
overexploitation of the nearshore areas. The only area which currently
protects the cichlid fishes is the 94 kmin Lake Malawi National Park in the
southern part of the Lake (Malawi), declared by UNESCO as a "World
Heritage Site" in 1982, but the continuous nature of the lake environment
leaves the park to large scale changes in the Lake and its basin.1.2
State of the lake ecosystem and the economic livelihoods that depend on
it:Although the Lake overall is still in a relatively good condition and
supporting its remarkable biodiversity, valuable riverine fisheries and
inshore fish communities (primarily in the shallower southern portion of
the Lake) are being impacted by current resource use trends. The recently
completed GEF/SADC Project studied the water quality of all the major
rivers flowing to the Lake. The project concluded that several rivers are
substantially altered by the activities within their catchment. Riverine
fisheries in these catchments have already declined through a combination
of over-fishing and habitat degradation of spawning and nursery areas for
young fish. It was further shown that these rivers especially in the
southern part of the Lake were already changing the water quality and
algal communities in local and larger areas of the Lake in ways which
could reduce the habitat availability of inshore, highly diverse benthic
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fishes. The nutrient and sediment loading to the Lake from its rivers has
likely increased by 50t within this century with a few rivers such as the
Linthipe, Songwe and Dwangwa accounting for much of that increase. Even
though the Lake on the whole remains in relatively good condition, with
rapidly increasing populations in the riparian countries and the need to
bring more marginal land into cultivation, the potential for serious
degradation will only increase in the next few decades. Agricultural
production in Malawi, almost 709 of which comes from smallholder farmers,
accounts for more than 90t of export earnings, contributes 45t of GDP and
supports more than 80- of the population. Despite the central importance
of agriculture, the basis of agricultural production - the soil - is
declining in fertility as a result of decades of neglect. Evidence for
long-term soil degradation and soil erosion includes physical measurements
of soil loss, declining yields from unfertilized crops, declining
responses to fertilizer application and impaired watershed performance.
Similarly, with more than 90t of Malawi's energy requirements met from
biomass supplies and national wood consumption standing at double the
sustainable production, the country faces a looming fuelwood crisis as
energy needs are met through the liquidation of forest capital. The
increased soil load moving off of degraded watersheds and eroded fields
finds its way to the Lake through the country's river systems, where it
poses a threat to the Lake ecology and to the condition of the nation's
watercourses. Although only 28t of the Lake's total drainage basin area is
within Tanzanian borders, the country provides for 53t of the total inflow
into the Lake. Major rivers are Songwe (shared with Malawi), Kiwira,
Lufirio, Ruhuru and Rumakali and annual mean runoff exceeds 10 million
l/kmy in many areas. As a result, land management within the Tanzanian
catchment area has a significant impact upon the level of nutrients,
sediments and other land-based pollution entering the Lake. Although the
northern shoreline currently is significantly less exposed to agricultural
practices and development pressures than the southwestern areas (Malawi
side) of the Lake, it is clear that further land clearance in the more
mountainous northern areas will have relatively greater negative impact on
the Lake due to steeper slopes and higher rainfall. (Mozambique has very
little influence on the Lake's chemistry, as its catchments on the steep
eastern lakeshore are very small, sparsely populated and mostly forested).
As a result of the above processes, resource degradation in the watersheds
and in the Lake is worsening, jeopardizing both the fragile level of
nutritional sufficiency of rural families and the very resources on which
their livelihoods depend. While the specific causes of land degradation
vary from locale to locale and even from landholding to landholding, the
causal linkages between land-based resource degradation and Lake resource
productivity and ecological health do not stop with the deposition of soil
and nutrients into the Lake. As agricultural livelihoods are threatened by
declining soil fertility and the resulting drop in the ability to meet
subsistence economic and nutritional requirements, pressure on Lake
resources increases. Lake Malawi has historically served as a safety net
for the rural population in times of need and the low capital and
technological requirements of artisanal fishing methods combined with the
prevailing lack of social or governmental regulation of access provide
significant incentives to indiscriminate exploitation of the Lake's
fisheries resources. The consequence has been increased pressure on the
biodiversity-rich nearshore fisheries, declining catch, a heightened risk
of depletion of local stocks, and possible endangerment and loss of
valuable endemic species. The Government of Malawi has recognized this
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dual threat to livelihood sustainability and economic development and is
seeking to develop strategies to improve both resource conservation and
productivity. The major consequences of not confronting present trends
would be a decline in the overall artisanal fishery, loss of biodiversity
and a continued deterioration of Lake water quality and potential uses,
including unsustainability of the Lake water for domestic supply,
livestock or hydroelectric generation, loss of potential tourist revenue
and related recreational opportunities, higher prevalence of water-borne
diseases and related human and economic costs, and degradation of wetlands
and their associated environmental and economic services. The urgency of
the challenge has been dramatically reinforced by a lake wide fish kill
which began in late September 1999 and extended into November. This
protracted die off of a wide spectrum of fish species with quite different
ecological niches and oxygen tolerances is unprecedented in the Lake's
known history and is deeply troubling to the people dependent on the
lake's resources, as well as those concerned about the exceptional
biodiversity. Other costs will arise from the destruction of the existing
biological diversity for its scientific interest and its role in providing
a resilient ecosystem for the Lake.
2. Objectives
The Lake Malawi Ecosystem Management Project (LMEMP) is one of three
nationally-based ecosystem management programs, currently under
preparation with the Governments of the other two countries adjoining Lake
Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa (Mozambique and Tanzania). The project will be the
first of its kind in this Lake that is both of great economic value to the
riparian countries and of great scientific and cultural significance to
the global community. LMEMP's development objective is to contribute to
the country's efforts to improve the economic livelihood of stakeholder
communities living along the lakeshore and in the catchment of the Lake.
The project will identify and demonstrate practical, self-sustaining
environmental management interventions in critical pilot zones, while
simultaneously building the constituencies and capacity of national and
local-level institutions for ecosystem management. It will have as its
central aim maximizing the benefits to riparian communities from improved
fisheries management and the sustainable use of soils, forests, wetlands
and other resources within the basin to generate food, employment and
income, while sustaining the ecosystem from which these benefits arise.
The Global objective of the project is to bring about joint management and
monitoring of the shared drainage basin for conservation and sustainable
use of the Lake's globally significant biodiversity for the benefit of the
people who live in the catchment, the national economies of which they are
a part, and the global community.The fundamental concept put forward for
the Lake Malawi Ecosystem Management Project is that the project will
enable a more programmatic linkage between the Lake and its watershed in
the thinking and planning of resource users, sector agencies, local
governments and ministries concerned. This is a significant challenge
considering that at the moment natural resource management in the Lake
watershed is not the explicit mandate of any particular government agency
or institution. In this regard, LMEMP will help create a more informed
constituency within sectoral ministries and agencies, district assemblies,
local level institutions and communities for an integrated ecosystem
approach for sustainable resource management of the Lake resources. All
interventions considered for support under LMEMP will be consistent with
existing government programs and policies and will be implemented through
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existing structures at national, district and local levels, while
supporting the district development framework in the three countries. The
formulation of LMEMP is based on a good understanding of priority
transboundary environmental concerns, the sectoral policy causes of such
problems, and riparian recognition of the strategic actions required to
address the identified threats to the Lake ecosystem. Transboundary
diagnostic analysis is the basis for the formulation of the Strategic
Action Program (SAP) by the three riparian countries. Between 1996 and
2000, the GEF, CIDA and DFID supported the implementation of the GEF/SADC
Lake Malawi/Nyasa Biodiversity Conservation Project, an intensive regional
research program on the Lake. The project concept centred on filling the
gaps in knowledge and understanding of (a) the distribution and current
status of biodiversity, and (b) catchment and limnological processes which
provide the basis of the Lake's biological productivity. This was achieved
through a strong international scientific input over four years that led
to comprehensive assessments of the state of the Lake ecosystem, the
sources and severity of threats to the ecosystem, and the geographic and
temporal parameters of those threats. The knowledge base generated by the
GEF/SADC Project thus provides important information on baseline
conditions in 1996-2000, against which future improvements can be
evaluated.
3. Rationale for Bank's Involvement
Research carried out under the former SADC/GEF Biodiversity Conservation
Project indicates that a highly targeted approach to land use improvements
in the catchments is required in order to reduce or reverse the trend
towards eutrophication and harmful sediment impacts in Lake Malawi.
Current government-supported interventions in the watersheds do not take
this requirement into account, and will not therefore address the problems
of the Lake ecosystem in a systematic manner. Given existing financial
constraints and the intensification of problems in land and natural
resources management, it is likely that activities on the ground will
remain limited and progress correspondingly slow. Indeed, in some sectors
such as forestry and fisheries net progress is actually negative overall.
The Bank would therefore support the only intervention that seeks to build
government and community capacity to address resource degradation in a
comprehensive and strategic manner that is directly related to maintenance
of the economic and biologic productivity of the Lake and its
catchments.Currently the only donor active within the fisheries sector on
Lake Malawi is GTZ, and this agency's support to policy, research and
management will end in October 2002. Malawi is in the unusual position of
having a well-developed fisheries sector policy, well-researched problems
in fishery management and resource allocation, and proven fishery
development opportunities in the form of under-exploited fish stocks. The
Bank is thus uniquely placed to assist the Government to convert theory
into practice by supporting policy implementation and financing the design
and pilot testing of a management and sector development framework for
Lake Malawi.GEF support for LMEMP has had an enormous leveraging with
national funding, development financing, bilateral funding, and private
sector action for operationalizing an ecosystem approach for Lake Malawi,
not only in Malawi but also in Tanzania and Mozambique where national Lake
programs are being prepared. Undoubtedly there will be substantial
additional funds from other donors. These planned and future initiatives
still forthcoming are expected to "take their signals" from the framework
to be streamlined under this project. GEF funding will also make possible
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the development of permanent institutional arrangements for implementation
of an integrated ecosystem approach to managing the lake ecosystem.
4. Description
The project will consist of two broad sets of investments. The first set
of investments, which will be designed to identify, test and demonstrate
practical, self-sustaining management interventions to address specific
environmental threats (studied under the first GEF/SADC Project), will
take place in a series of selected pilot zones. The second set of
investments, which will improve information on the Lake, build a more
informed stakeholder constituency for ecosystem management, and enhance
local and national capacity for more effective ecosystem monitoring and
management, will be of necessity lake-wide in scope. All components will
contain a mixture of information gathering, monitoring, capacity building
and support for community-based interventions to address the prioritized
issues in the project's pilot zones. All components will receive funding
from the GEF and other bilateral agencies. LMEMP will support the
following specific activities under four project components:(1)
Integrated Watershed Management component A key objective of LMEMP is to
protect fisheries productivity and species biodiversity in Lake Malawi by
reducing soil and nutrient loss from the lake catchments and the loading
of these materials into the Lake. Under the Integrated Watershed
Management (IWM) component, this objective will be accomplished through a
combination of improved ecosystem planning and monitoring capacity at
national level, strengthened integrated action planning and implementation
at district and area level, and community driven investments in priority
watershed management activities in sensitive catchments. The activities to
be carried out on the ground will contribute to the environmental
objectives while at the same time contributing to the national goal of
poverty reduction through enhanced resource productivity. Specific
sub-components include:A. Develop National Capacity for Integrated
Watershed Management Planning and Monitoring. The objective of this
sub-component is to develop a national capacity for ecosystem-based
planning and more specifically for a watershed focus in the sectoral
planning of the principal natural resource departments. This will require
the development and maintenance of relevant databases for ecosystem
management, the development of a national monitoring program, and training
in integrated watershed management planning methods for technical staff in
the natural resource departments. This sub-component will also include
support for the harmonization of policy and legal frameworks to facilitate
implementation of an ecosystem approach to planning and support to sectors
to orient sector planning and resource allocation systems in accordance to
the priorities developed from an ecosystem-based approach.B.
Decentralized Capacity-building for IWM. In keeping with Government's
commitment to decentralize planning and implementation functions to the
districts, this sub-component will provide support for IWM planning at
District and Area levels. Since technical capacity at this level is
generally weak, LMEMP will support the reallocation of technical resources
from central to district level in targeted districts, while providing
specialized medium- and long-term training for officers assigned at
district and area levels. Logistical support will also be strengthened for
district, area and field-level technical specialists directly involved in
supporting LMEMP-funded IWM initiatives in priority watersheds and
micro-catchments. NGO and CBO involvement in supporting field-level
initiatives is to be encouraged, with special attention to training and
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other capacity-building needs.C. Community-Driven Investments in IWM.
There is substantial demand from resource users and communities for
investment in improved natural resource management practices and
infrastructure as revealed in the process of developing District
Environmental Action Plans and District State of the Environment Reports.
There is growing awareness of the linkage between conservation practices
and productivity; what is often missing is the application of information,
organization, and funding. LMEMP will assist in providing these key
ingredients by promoting the communication of indigenous and other
technical knowledge, supporting community institutions in mobilizing
people and resources for locally-defined projects in critical
micro-catchments, and providing funding through local administrative
channels for projects that have passed through district planning
processes. Approach and JustificationThe first GEF/SADC Project (completed
in 2000) defined fluxes of sediments and nutrients to Lake Malawi at the
river basin scale and confirmed that poor agricultural practices,
deforestation and seasonal burning are already having a measurable impact
on riverine and near shore fisheries and biodiversity, and threaten to
bring about a major shift in the Lake's ecology through eutrophication of
its surface waters. A catchment modeling study undertaken in 2000
indicated that the principal source of river-borne sediment and nutrients
is the steep escarpment zone, mostly lying within 40km of the lakeshore.
These steep areas in close proximity to the shoreline of the Lake have
high slopes, fragile soils and high rainfall which give them high erosion
potential. The strongest effects of this process are felt in the shallow
water aquatic communities that are located near the biodiversity-rich
deltas. Shoreline and water quality changes in the vicinity of impacted
rivers together with intensive exploitation of the highly diverse near
shore fisheries resources reduce fish production, lower local lakeshore
incomes and nutritional conditions as well as eliminate their potential to
supply fish to inland areas within the riparian countries. The Integrated
Watershed Management component will select priority river basins and will
work with communities at the micro-catchment and catchment levels to
reduce excessive loss of water and soils from watersheds, increase soil
fertility, increase rates of afforestation, protect and increase potable
water supplies, empower resident communities to maintain and monitor their
watersheds, and introduce new approaches for integrated delivery of
watershed management services. Specifically, the component will support
(a) integrated watershed management planning and coordination, including
the progressive refinement of existing catchment models to improve the
targeting of field interventions and the strengthening of a multisectoral
ecosystem-level approach to natural resources management within the Lake
basin; (b) an integrated program of community-based soil conservation,
wetland maintenance, and forest management interventions in targeted
micro-catchments, based on existing government policies for land
resources, forestry, water, wildlife and fisheries; and (c) the monitoring
of watershed function, with particular emphasis on strengthening the
hydrological monitoring network but also including the monitoring of land
use change, forest cover and in some cases river fisheries. The
monitoring activities supported under the IWM component will also
contribute directly to the tripartite Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa
International Monitoring program (component 4) by providing input
information for the principal Malawi catchments. Critical basins from this
perspective are the Linthipe, with the largest urban population in the
Lake catchment and the Songwe, Bua and Dwangwa where increasing pressures
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for agriculture may be affecting water yields and quality significantly.
These larger basins differ markedly in their impacts on the Lake's coastal
areas, but the causes are still poorly defined in terms of land uses. The
project will strengthen the relevant departments' ability to conduct
assessments of larger river basin issues and tie together sectoral
information and databases into a common GIS-based watershed database and
modeling approach so that services and interventions can be targeted into
critical areas undergoing rapid loss of natural capital. Such an approach
will also assist stakeholders to generate credible predictions about the
future status of the Lake, confirm causes of past changes in loss of
watershed natural capital, target critical areas for interventions, and
evaluate their anticipated impacts on the water quality and fish resources
of coastal areas of the Lake.The IWM component will be multi-disciplinary
and will cut across traditional sectoral and ministerial boundaries within
national administrative structures. It will be implemented by staff from
several natural resource departments, including Water Development,
Forestry, Parks and Wildlife, Land Resources, and Fisheries, and by the
University of Malawi, District Governments, NGOs, and most critically the
communities in the targeted micro-catchments. There is a large number of
possible sites on the escarpment, and the micro-catchments finally chosen
for action will vary in their size and the time required to bring about a
monitorable change. But the entry point for the implementation of these
objectives will be existing policies and programmatic approaches of the
implementing agencies. LMEMP will build upon the current knowledge and
capacity of the implementing departments and will focus on strengthening
those departments and mobilizing their technical capacity at the
community, district, and national level. (2) Fisheries Resource
Management The fisheries component seeks to improve the livelihoods of
fishing communities along the Lake and contribute to nutritional
availability and economic productivity at both the local and national
levels by improving ecosystem-based fisheries management strategies and
policies and ensuring that fish resources are utilized sustainably while
conserving globally significant biodiversity. The component will examine
the feasibility of community-based management of fishing areas to
determine sustainable levels of exploitation which reduce overexploitation
of fish stocks and minimize risks of species extinctions in the highly
diverse fish communities of the Lake. It is anticipated that trials of
combinations of fishing technology, methods and intensity will determine
the type and scale of artisanal fishing which brings the greatest return
on achievable investment to the artisanal fishermen and their fishing
community while minimizing risks of species extinctions. From these
trials at the community level, a coherent strategy and policy development
framework for the sector will be formulated with the support of the
project. Specific sub-components include:A. Fisheries Management
Strategy. The sub-component will consist of a lake-wide planning framework
for biodiversity conservation and enhanced sustainable exploitation of
fisheries resources. Using data generated from the predecessor GEF/SADC
Project and other scientific studies on lake biodiversity and fish stocks,
a comprehensive strategy for protecting fragile lake habitat and species
diversity while enhancing the economic and nutritional contribution of
lake resources to families, communities and the national economy will be
developed. The development of technically sound and financially viable
production strategies will be a key sub-component of the component. This
sub-component will also support the regulatory and research (monitoring)
functions of central departments.B. Pilot Technology and Production
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Methods Innovations. Scientific studies referred to above confirm that
there is a large, relatively untapped fisheries resource in the deeper
areas of the Lake. These studies also reveal the fragility of some fish
stocks, the existence of over-exploitation in some nearshore areas, and
the generalized threat of unregulated exploitation to the quality of lake
resources and biodiversity. While a number of technologies and fishing
methods innovations have been advanced to address issues such as
overfishing of nearshore stocks, there has been little systematic
assessment of the appropriate mix of innovations to provide financially
viable and technically accessible options for fisher communities and
entrepreneurs. This sub-component will provide for rigorous study and
development of approaches of technologies and fishing methods as well as
careful monitoring of the impact of each production package on lake
biodiversity while also assessing the equity and social impacts of
different packages. While particular attention will be accorded to
packages adapted for small-scale and artisanal fisher populations, the
constraints and opportunities for medium-scale commercial exploitation
will also be addressed.C. Strengthen Producer and Community-based
Management of Fisheries Resources. While sector-wide regulations are an
important aspect of fisheries management, effective management of the
fisheries ultimately depends on the actions of local producers and fisher
communities. This sub-component will support Fisheries Department
initiatives in the establishment and strengthening of Village Beach
Committees. Support will also be given to assessing the demand for
producer-based organizations for artisanal and semi-commercial fishers.
Such groupings may be of particular value in information generation and
sharing regarding best practices, production technologies, and the
incentives surrounding regulatory compliance. It may be anticipated that
these groups will also play a critical role in the development and
implementation of agreements regarding managing access to fisheries.
Innovations developed under this sub-component will also require careful
monitoring for the impact on vulnerable populations.Approach and
JustificationLake Malawi possesses a number of features that make it
unique among the lakes of the world. The most well known feature is the
species-rich assemblage of fishes whose diversity surpasses that of any
other freshwater fish community in the world. Of great interest to the
scientific community, this diversity, along with the fascinating breeding
and feeding behavior exhibited by many of the fish, has been studied under
the first GEF/SADC Project. But for the population living in the Lake
catchment, it is fish's utility as an inexpensive source of high quality
food what makes the Lake's exceptional biodiversity so valuable. The
shallow water artisanal fishery is however in a downward spiral of
deterioration as a result of localized over-fishing and increased land
degradation, sedimentation and siltation in the catchment. There has been
a decline in fish stocks of some key species in the biodiversity-rich near
shore areas of the Lake, which are habitat for the most diverse and
endemic species of cichlids. Due to their sedentary nature and low
reproductive rate, cichlids are vulnerable to extinction from excessive
fishing pressure, changes in water quality and localized overexploitation
of the near shore areas. The principal challenge for sustainable
management of the Lake's fisheries is to reduce pressure on the fragile
and highly diverse near shore stocks. To date there has been very little
management of the artisanal fisheries. Malawi and Tanzania have enacted
laws to regulate the fisheries by conventional means - through mesh size
restrictions, gear prohibitions, closed seasons and minimum landed sizes -
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but in practice these are not well enforced nor complied with. There has
never been any attempt to limit total fishing effort and fishing pressure
is contained only by the opportunity cost of labor (which is very low) and
the industry's technical backwardness. In 1997 Malawi enacted a fisheries
law that provides, for the first time, for the sharing of management
between the government and the fishing communities. This policy shift
shows some signs of promise, but it cannot yet be said to have been
successful. Both Mozambique and Tanzania have expressed interest in
developing similar co-management regimes in their artisanal fisheries.
Tanzania has successfully adopted this approach on Lake Victoria.The
fisheries component of LMEMP will provide a planning framework for
development of an ecosystem-based socially and environmentally sustainable
fisheries management strategy. Such strategy will enable to manage
fisheries resources in ways that are consistent with sustaining the
biological viability of fish stocks and the financial viability of the
fishing industry. Currently, the Lake's near shore stocks are under heavy
pressure from artisanal fisheries, while offshore demersal stocks are only
moderately exploited and the large offshore pelagic stocks are very
lightly exploited. There exists a real possibility of complementing
attempts to improve the management of the biodiversity-rich inshore
fisheries by promoting the diversification of the fishing sector into
offshore waters. This could involve investigating options for sustainably
increasing yields and generating economic opportunities by determining
appropriate technologies and fishing methods which could allow the
artisanal fishery sector to sustainably develop into a locally-based
small-scale fishery based on demersal and offshore stocks. Such efforts
will need to be community based and will reduce pressure on the
biodiversity-rich near shore stocks. It is the intention of the Government
to do this within the context of a well-defined management strategy for
the Lake fisheries and under a regime of close supervision and monitoring.
Over the past decade a great deal of fishery research has been undertaken
in the Lake, the results and recommendations of which are neither easily
accessible to fishery managers nor in all cases in agreement with each
other. It is necessary to develop a synthesis of current understanding on
the various fish stocks and the relationships between them in order to
design a coherent ecosystem-based strategy for fisheries management. In
cases where the fishery scientists are in disagreement, the scope and
implications of such disagreement must be made clear and suitable tests
embodied in the resulting adaptive management/development strategy.
Monitoring is also a vital component in any management structure, and the
future fisheries resource component will be tied to monitoring systems
operating at national and local levels. Local-level monitoring will
include elements of intensive research as well as the tracking of key
indicators, e.g. catch per effort and size distribution of the catch, by
members of the fishing communities.The Fisheries component will therefore
support initiatives to develop an ecosystem-based fisheries management
strategy for the national fishing industry; radically improve the
management of near shore artisanal fisheries by supporting implementation
of the government's participatory fisheries management policy; propose
financially viable and biologically sustainable approaches for possible
community-based offshore fishery development in selected pilot areas,
including a rigorous assessment of the environmental and social impacts of
full-scale development; investigate the feasibility of aquaculture in the
lake shore zone, now favored by market conditions, as a complementary
source of fish protein, and define a sector investment strategy to support
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the development of environmentally and socially proven opportunities in
offshore fishing and aquaculture to reduce pressure and improve management
on the biodiversity-rich near shore areas.It is evident that without
improved management of the resource there will be serious impacts on the
valuable near shore fisheries resources, with negative socio-economic
consequences for fisherfolk communities and the local economy. The most
dramatic and direct effect of not taking action would be the onset of
increased instability in the fisheries sector and a risk of at least
localized collapses of shallow water fish stocks, with negative impacts on
biodiversity. The example provided by the chambo fisheries in the upper
Shire and nearby Lake Malombe, located south of Lake Malawi, illustrates
the potential crisis that could arise if measures are not taken to manage
the Lake's fisheries in a sustainable manner. (3) Mobilization of Social
and Institutional CapitalThe objective of this component is to increase
the awareness of and contribution to effective resource management of key
social institutions at community, district and national level involved in
the management of Lake Malawi resources. This will be accomplished in part
by supporting existing Government initiatives to build local capacity to
manage the natural resources upon which local livelihoods depend, such as
the Village Natural Resource Management Committee and the Village Beach
Committee. In addition to these organizational innovations, existing
social capital in the form of indigenous knowledge and social institutions
governing and informing community organization and mobilization, resource
management practices, and collective decision-making will be acknowledged
and integrated into project identification, development, implementation
and monitoring procedures. Horizontal and vertical networking within and
among stakeholder communities will be supported as a primary factor in
establishing and voicing local demands for ecosystem management and
planning.Specific sub-components include:A. Indigenous knowledge and
Improved Resource Management. This sub-component will actively address the
integration of indigenous knowledge and practices into technical
decision-making processes for integrated watershed and fisheries
management. It will also identify constraints which limit the adoption of
alternative technologies and approaches or negotiate alternatives which
may be more socially acceptable and equally effective.B. Support for
Government CBNRM and Decentralization Policy. Existing programs to
establish and strengthen community-based organizations such as Village NRM
Committees and Village Beach Committees will be assessed to determine best
practices. Support will be provided to expand these organizations into
pilot areas and to strengthen the capacity of relevant technical
departments to support these CBOs. C. Capitalizing on Community
Expertise. Study tours, local "best practices" competitions, and other
mechanisms for information exchange among community natural resource
managers will be assessed for effectiveness and promoted as a means of
fostering horizontal networking and information capital accumulation.D.
Vertical Networks: Working up the Watershed. As part of the social capital
strengthening process, vertical networks linking resource users, community
organizations, Traditional Authorities, district technical and
administrative officers and national policy-makers and technical
specialists will be facilitated. Watershed forums will be organized
allowing for discussion across jurisdictional boundaries as well as social
and technical hierarchies. Such fora will provide a mechanism for sharing
knowledge and experiences, establishing priorities, and evaluating the
results of initiatives sponsored by this and related projects over time.
Approach and JustificationA key objective of LMEMP is to build a more
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informed stakeholder constituency for sustainable resource management of
the Lake resources. Through the Social and Institutional Capital
Mobilization component, the project seeks to foster a strong linkage among
knowledge (including indigenous knowledge), stakeholder participation, and
co-management initiatives, which all LMEMP components will support. A
major consideration for the project is how to institutionalize such
efforts so it continues beyond the life of LMEMP. LMEMP success will rely
to a considerable extent on an informed exchange among the stakeholders at
all levels. This informed exchange includes not only the dissemination of
information generated at the center (government policies, research
findings, extension recommendations etc.) but also the contribution of
(indigenous) community-based knowledge to decision making in the
co-management of the Lake resources to be supported under LMEMP. The
preparation of this component builds on earlier indigenous knowledge (IK)
related activities in Malawi dating back to 1995, and a National Science
and Technology Policy approved in May 2001 which stresses the relevance of
IK. This cross-cutting component will develop multi-stakeholder
information networks for Lake Malawi ecosystem management; support
vertical communication linkages that ensure a regular two-way flow of
information between resource users, local authorities and central
technical specialists and policy makers; and facilitate mechanisms for
horizontal information exchange, such as fisher-to-fisher,
farmer-to-farmer, community-to-community, local government-to-local
government and department-to-department. Strengthened social and
institutional capital that builds on indigenous means of communication and
organization will be instrumental in facilitating horizontal networks
among stakeholders whose exchanges in the past have been either very
limited or restricted to formal or hierarchical channels. Such conditions
of open dialogue for collective analysis are essential in order for all
stakeholders to collaboratively identify achievable priority actions, but
most importantly, create spaces for consultation and dialogue among
themselves and with the implementing agencies and districts on ways to
achieve and monitor progress towards meeting the project's objectives. It
will enable stakeholders to advocate their interests, provide feedback to
government, and monitor progress towards achieving LMEMP objectives. In
addition, this component will support the integration of indigenous
knowledge into project planning and practice. This will be achieved
through the establishment of an IK technical team charged with the
identification of indigenous knowledge, practices and resource management
systems that can be extended or replicated through the project's field
components.(4) Regional Programs component The objective of this
component is to support the development of an ecosystem policy and
institutional framework to assist the riparian governments to eventually
operationalize joint management and monitoring of land and water resources
in the Lake basin. Specific sub-components include:A. African Centre for
Aquatic Research and Education. This sub-component will facilitate
transformation of the Senga Bay research station, home of the predecessor
GEF/SADC Project, into a regional center of excellence for aquatic
ecosystem research, training and education to serve the needs of Malawi
and the riparian countries of Tanzania and Mozambique for improved
management of Lake Malawi.B. Ecosystem Monitoring Program. LMEMP will
establish a lake-wide water quality/physical processes model and regional
ecosystem monitoring system, which would form the core transboundary
program for the regional center (above).C. Ecosystem Policy and
Institutional Framework. This sub-component will assist in the design of
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common strategies and compatible policies and programs for joint
management of the transboundary resources in the basin based on lessons
learned from pilot projects and field experience, including support to
special studies related to transboundary issues, and support to a Malawi
Secretariat to a (future) Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa management
institution.Approach and JustificationAs indicated earlier, LMEMP succeeds
the GEF/SADC Lake Malawi/Nyasa Biodiversity Conservation Project which was
completed in 2000. An important lesson learned from the SADC/GEF project
was that the three riparian countries have different priorities and
impacts on the Lake ecosystem, and also face different constraints in
their capacities to manage the Lake resources. Although each has voiced a
commitment to the actions called for under the first project, they felt
that a single large project covering a wide range of disciplines and
institutions in the three countries under a single regional management
would be less manageable than a series of nationally based projects with
strong mechanisms for regional networking and the treatment of
transboundary issues. The transboundary issues of the Lake ecosystem
require that in the long-term the three riparian countries find common
strategies and institute compatible policies and programs for joint
management of the resources in the basin. The Regional Programs component
is the first contribution to such networking and collaboration. The
component is coordinated with a number of other relevant initiatives
related to the larger Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa eco-region which are under
consideration or in the early stages of development, including the Lake
Malawi Eco-region initiative supported by WWF, the Tri-partite Legal
Framework facilitated by FAO, the Regional Water Resources Development
initiative supported by SIDA, and a similar regional water program
sponsored by Danida. Each of these efforts is a clear expression of the
strong international interest in this vital eco-region. With the support
of the Bank and the GEF, the emerging programs in Malawi, Mozambique and
Tanzania represent the countries' national efforts to develop
multi-sectoral approaches to improve resource utilization and management
of the Lake and its catchments within a regional framework of cooperation.
In this sense, LMEMP rightly focuses on building local and national
capacity to address the management priorities for the Lake fisheries and
key catchments feeding into the Lake, while establishing the knowledge
base and expertise required for effective regional management of the
larger Lake basin.
5. Financing
Total ( US$m)
BORROWER $2.00
IBRD
IDA $18.00
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY $10.00
Total Project Cost $30.00
6. Implementation
The Lake Malawi Ecosystem Management Project will be implemented over a
period of eight years. This somewhat longer than typical project time
horizon is recommended due to the long-term capacity building objectives
and scale of the project, involving as it does a wide range of
implementing agencies and a significant reorientation in the conceptual
underpinnings of traditional sectoral planning and implementation to
include a basin-wide conceptual frame and development of a corresponding
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multi-sectoral decision-support information system. In addition to the
targeted district assemblies in the Lake basin, the project will involve
four ministries and six government departments in the coordination of
project activities. The ministries include: Ministry of Natural Resources
and Environmental Affairs, Ministry of Water Development, Ministry of
Agriculture and Irrigation, and Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife. The
departments include: Department of Fisheries, Department of Forestry,
Department of National Parks, Department of Water Resources, the
Environmental Affairs Department, and the Land Resources Conservation
Department. The Department of Local Government Administration in the
Ministry of Local Government will also play a key support role in guiding
and facilitating the operations of the district administrations through
which much of the field level activities will be planned and executed.
Field level implementation will also involve NGOs, government programs
with expertise in watershed related rehabilitation such as the EU-funded
Promotion of Soil Conservation and Rural Productivity Project (PROSCARP)
and the USAID-sponsored Agroforestry Extension Program (MAFE), and
implementing partners such as MASAF.Oversight:The Government of Malawi has
expressed interest in establishing a central entry point for Lake
initiatives and a mechanism for ensuring that information and relevant
analysis is shared among key state agencies. To assist with the
accomplishment of these responsibilities, a National Lake Malawi Policy
Coordination Committee (NLMPCC) will be constituted, comprised of the
Principal Secretaries of the Ministries of Natural Resources and
Environmental Affairs, Water Development, Agriculture and Irrigation,
Tourism and Wildlife, Transport, and others to be determined by
Government. This body will provide effective oversight to the project
while also addressing the broader policy considerations that may arise
involving Lake Malawi, the watersheds that drain into the Lake, and the
regional management of the Lake basin. The NLMPCC may also serve as the
national foundation and possible Malawi Secretariat for the eventual
establishment of a Joint Commission for Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa at
regional level. Project Management:Given the coordination requirements of
the project through the mentioned technical departments and the uneven
rate of advancement of the country's decentralization program, Government
has decided to establish a central Project Management Office (PMO) with a
substantial degree of administrative authority and an experienced
professional staff. The PMO will be established by the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environmental Affairs to undertake the general management of
the project, the coordination of implementation by the responsible
implementing agencies, financial management, central procurement, and the
preparation of progress, procurement and financial reports. An experienced
Project Manager, Financial Controller, Procurement Specialist, Monitoring
and Evaluation specialist, and support staff will make up the Project
Management Office. The provision of targeted technical assistance in
specific areas such as integrated watershed management, fishery
exploitation technologies, and communication strategies is also planned.
The form and scale that such technical support will take will be
determined during appraisal. Technical Coordination:Coordination of the
technical aspects of project development and implementation will be
ensured through the establishment of a Technical Coordination Committee
(TCC) composed of Directors of implementing technical departments, the
senior executive officer of the successor organization to the Senga Bay
inland fisheries research center, and a representative appointed by the
University of Malawi. The Principal Secretary, MNREA, will chair the TCC.
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The TCC would collaborate closely with the Project Management Office, but
would have no formal reporting relationship to the National Lake Malawi
Policy Coordination Committee. Rather, each Department Director would
report to his superior through regular ministerial channels. At District
level, the counterpart to the TCC will be the District Environmental
Sub-Committee (DESC), composed of the heads of the technical departments
responsible for natural resource management at district level, notably
Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Water Resources, Parks and Wildlife and
Environmental Affairs. Other technical services such as health, education,
roads and public works are also involved in the work of the DESC when
relevant. NGOs and private sector interests actively engaged in the
district are typically invited to attend and participate in DESC meetings.
LMEMP will provide support to the DESC for project identification and
development, project supervision and technical support, logistics, and
implementation of approved activities. Provision will also be made for
structured meetings of DESC representatives from the participating
districts to share experiences and expertise, to develop and exchange
lessons learned from implementation, and to provide a project-wide forum
for qualitative assessment of project progress and accomplishments.
Regional Linkages:While LMEMP is a national project, it has been designed
with full recognition of the regional dimension of effective management of
the Lake as an international water body and of the Lake Malawi basin as an
ecosystem that physically transcends national boundaries and demands
coordinated action for its sustainable maintenance. The Government of
Malawi has undertaken the establishment of a regional center of excellence
in aquatic research in partnership with the United Nations University's
specialized branch for water and environment, the International Network
for Water, Environment and Health (INWEH) which will provide
administrative oversight and technical support. The foundation for the
establishment of the African Center for Aquatic Research and Education
(ACARE), to be located at the site of the Senga Bay inland fisheries
research facility, has been laid with the drafting and initial review of a
host country agreement and Memorandum of Understanding between the
Government of Malawi and the UNU. ACARE will be central importance to the
development of regional capacity in ecosystem analysis and management.
Core research themes for ACARE were reviewed and agreed by key
stakeholders in a workshop organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources
and Environmental Affairs. While ACARE will operate as an autonomous
institution, its research program, education and training activities, and
staffing will reflect regional priorities and management needs of the Lake
Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa basin.The project will also support the regional
integration and sharing of findings from national ecosystem monitoring
programs through the establishment of a regional ecosystem monitoring
network. The network is to be facilitated by ACARE.
7. Sustainability
The key elements for sustainability of project benefits are: (i)
stakeholder community empowerment; (ii) adequate commitment to strengthen
management agencies, local government and community capacities to
implement project activities; and (iii) political willingness to sustain
regional cooperation for joint environmental management of the Lake and
its watershed. Respectively, these are addressed in the project by the
proposed stakeholder participation process to be mainstreamed in LMEMP
through the Social Capital Mobilization component, the project's approach
to work through the operationalization of existing government policies
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within a strategic ecosystem management framework, and support for the
regional programs component to develop common strategies and compatible
policies and programs for joint management of the resources in the Lake
and the basin.
8. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector
The highly participatory project preparation process allowed for a
comprehensive analysis of best practices, and of design features to avoid
or overcome, from relevant completed and ongoing projects. As an example,
in the area of integrated watershed management LMEMP design reflects the
conclusion drawn from the field experience of both PROSCARP and MAFE.
Initially, both of these better land husbandry / soil and water
conservation (SWC) programs focused at the community and on-farm level.
Implementation tended to be dispersed, with technology adopters spread
across a large area. Both programs have since adopted a catchment approach
to organizing SWC interventions. LMEMP also takes a clear landscape
approach to the maximization of impact from watershed restoration or
rehabilitation by focusing field activities on priority areas in a given
watershed. Similarly, the approach taken to working with rural communities
and producers as the primary resource managers owes much to the experience
of projects such as COMPASS and NARMAP, focusing on collaborative
management and CBNRM practices in the watersheds and along the lakeshore,
respectively, as well as to regional best practices from a broad range of
environmental and natural resources management projects.Lessons learned
from the IDA Fisheries Development Project and the GEF/SADC Lake Malawi
Biodiversity Conservation Project are described in the Intensive Learning
ICRs, Beneficiary Assessment and OED performance audits that were carried
to derive lessons for the design of LMEMP. Preparation of these ICRs
encouraged an open and supportive dialogue with the Government and the
Bank team about lessons learned from these projects and other relevant
experiences which could inform the formulation of LMEMP. Combining these
leads to the following list of conclusions that are of direct relevance to
the current project design. GEF projects need to be strongly linked to all
relevant national environmental and natural resource agencies to
mainstream the development effort and leverage outputs.Failure to
undertake realistic appraisal of institutional capability risks
overloading projects with unachievable objectives and components.
Establishing regional institutions for international waters projects
requires very careful planning, extensive consultation, clear and
unambiguous agreements, protocols on communication, and an effective
umbrella organization to coordinate and synergize riparians' efforts. All
this requires a high level of Bank effort and facilitation to avoid GEF
projects becoming enclave activities of questionable operational
value.Achievement of multi-country objectives is put at risk if only one
partner receives and manages GEF project financing. It is probably better
to support cross-boundary resource conservation through free-standing
projects to individual countries and deal with the inter-regional
coordination as a separate activity. GEF biodiversity and environmental
projects require objective management and technical review to ensure
continued focus on their development and operational goals--and thus avoid
becoming hostage to increasingly demanding scientific agendas. These
observations have been considered carefully in the formulation of this
project, as follows: The project's ecosystem approach to planning and
implementation requires strong intersectoral coordination, especially at
field level. The development of a national ecosystem monitoring program,
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and its integration at regional level, provides further opportunity for
linkage among sectors and institutions. This lesson learned from the IDA
Fisheries Development Project relates to weaknesses in central project
administration that constrain or limit field implementation capacity. This
problem has been addressed in the current project design by separating
core functions for central departments from field implementation, with the
latter organized and funded at district and sub-district levels.The
establishment of ACARE as a regional center of excellence is a key
contribution to building indigenous regional commonality in perspective,
understanding, and the effective capacity to undertake joint management of
the Lake Malawi basin. This important lesson resulted in the current
program design, comprising three national projects with transboundary
issues dealt with through a regional programs component.Unlike the
GEF/SADC Project referred to above, LMEMP is not primarily a scientific
research project but instead focuses on improved ecosystem management for
enhanced economic productivity and livelihood sustainability. The core
research functions of key natural resource sectors will be supported under
the project as part of the effort to improve resource management
practices.
9. Program of Targeted Intervention (PTI)     N
10. Environment Aspects (including any public consultation)
Issues        The Executive Summary of the Integrated Social and
Environmental Analysis of the project is being disclosed separately.
11. Contact Point:
Task Manager
Francisco J. Pichon
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington D.C. 20433
Telephone: 202 473-7510
Fax: 202 473-8178
12. For information on other project related documents contact:
The InfoShop
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20433
Telephone: (202) 458-5454
Fax:        (202) 522-1500
Web: http:// www.worldbank.org/infoshop
Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may
not be necessarily included in the final project.
This PID was processed by the InfoShop during the week ending
May 24, 2002.
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